Welcome to New Jersey, now go home
 

What a welcome this will be.

United Airlines announced Wednesday that its employees, along with several members of Congress, would stage a protest on Sunday at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The protest, which United and its unions expect to draw between 150 and 200 people, is in reaction to the inaugural flight of Emirates' new daily service between Newark, New Jersey, and Athens, Greece.

Very petty behaviour by United. Throwing a tantrum because they are unhappy. Im amused that even members of Congress have time to go and throw a tantrum too. Are there not more important issues to deal with?

Gosh. That's a huge turnout:p

So the Boss of United says it's a loss making route, so he won't bother running it himself. That's fine it's his train set do what you want. So why the need to protest then.
Emirates see it differently that's their prerogative, we will see in the long run who is right.
I've said it before and I will say it again, if the US carriers upped their game and standard of service, from what I've seen over the years, the American public are a very patriotic bunch, and would prefer to fly with a US carrier.
The sad truth is however the standard of service is genuinely pretty awful even on Business and First compared to the Middle Eastern airlines, hence the public vote with their wallets and avoid the US Carriers it would appear.
The ball is in the court of the US airlines, perhaps if they spent less time bouncing between massive profits and Chapter 11, and concentrated on the their passengers then they would achieve a nice healthy permanent profit, and longevity.
It would appear though that modern style is cut,cut,cut and then charge for every little item, even BA is going the way of a low cost outfit.

How many years is it since direct flights from Athens to New York ? This is all year round rather than cherry picking summer routes ! So why is no US carrier flying the route all year round ..............

Because it can't make money as a year round route (unless it is subsidized in some way, either by a corporation guaranteeing a certain number of sold seats per flight, or a government guarantee that it will cover any losses incurred by the airline). The latter is what the U.S. airlines say is happening, hence the demonstration that was organized.
BTW, United is investing millions of dollars in a new business class service called Polaris in an attempt to compete with the ME3 on premium service, without the help of any direct government subsidy and violating any Open Skies agreements.

United as well lost the DoD lift out of IAD to jetBlue and EK

I suspect they're the most pissed of the 3 US carriers....

Looks like a pleasant crowd with posters and smiles. I am surprised UA really organized this. May be they plan to drop DXB. If UA also puts a block on pool spares, EK has to invest money on basic necessities like spare parts.

How many passengers are really going to fly this route Oct-Apr? There is a reason no airline that has to answer to its shareholders flies that route year round. There is just not a lot of traffic.
EK will try and fill it with sub continent traffic and will probably make money on it based on its slave wages.
How many pilots left this week?

United's Star Alliance partners, Egyptair & Air China, are not govt subsidized?

Some things don't need millions of dollars of investment, like getting your crew to smile once in a while, offering to help and being customer service oriented. The older generation of cabin crew think they own the ship and it really is a no brainer that the customer experience is in a different league with the ME3.

Bring it! Or stay home..

OK Olympic when it was around couldn't make the NYC pay, United the same, the question is can Emirates make it pay? Probably yes because it's a 'fifth freedom' flight originating in DXB.

I don't think Olympic ever made anything pay...

Regardless of stops, it's just an extra flight between NY and the subcontinent.

halas

It's funny how most EK pilots come on here to whine about their treatment by EK mgmt.

Yet same group gets amused when an established carrier fights back the gov't subsidized and corrupt practice of the mE3. Recall EK and the rest get away with employ y'all with almost no work rules. While the rest of the industry unions fight to establish practices that becomes norms for the piloting profession, both in safety and QOL improvements. UA and European carriers have a track record of paying pilots commensurate with experience and profits, as well as respecting things like days off, commuting, a pilots right to do as he sees fit with his off time.

Your company seemingly flogs you guys at every chance it gets. And you guys celebrate violations of open skies agreements?

Your pay and work rules will only improve due to pilots leaving for the States and Europe. Hence you benefit directly from a more level playing field and competitive environment. It's not going to go up cause you asked for it. You're a non-unionized carrier, remember?

You might want to scroll the pages over at the Fragrant Harbor forum and see how well the union is going for the guys and girls at Cathay... :hmm:

Fuel-Off :ok:

Geebz has a valid point though!
Just replace "unions" with "civilisation".

"'uge". It's 'uge, not huge.

Geetz - You must not have been in the business very long to demonstrate such a lack of humility during your 'up time', not to mention your misunderstanding of Open Skies.

Our fight does not involve trolling on the Majors forums and reminding their flag wavers of lost pensions and mass furloughs in the past - many of whom came here.

It's a shoe in for Karma buddy

Now if everyone can get off in Athens and get re-screened to be able to board with their electronic gear, this flight actually might do really well. I would have thought the wiser move initially would have been DXB-EWR nonstop to develop the route, then add the ATH/BUD stop as the route matured, but perhaps these latest developments change that calculus.